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Hikari (Labyrinth)
Hikari , also known as ??? before its true identity is revealed is a Labyrinth in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. Profile A reality in the Movie World created by Hikari from her desire to escape reality, discard her self and end all of her pain with her self-destruction. Before it is cleared, its name is obscured by black scribble. The Labyrinth majorly appears as a whimsical fairy tale landscape taking inspiration from animated musicals and various fairy tales, such as The Wizard of Oz and Snow White, but at the deepest floor it suddenly turns into a monochrome and unsettling flowerbed, with the flowers in the background having hollow eyes and tearing blood, symbolizing its owner's desire for self-destruction as a terminal for her pain. The background music further reflects this, as it becomes more sinister as the party transverses deeper towards the depths. It took the form of a musical as Hikari's father wished for her to be wonderful like the protagonist of a musical, but was twisted to the form where she ends up giving up the will to live instead. Even before reaching the final floor, though, the party expresses nervousness at the overly cheerful scenery contrasted with Hikari's depression and the characters frequently breaking out into songs with the repeated "moral" that individuality is an obstacle to happiness. It also documents Hikari's life as a biopic as the movie she wanted to make is implied to be one, but it depicts how her life is ruined instead of a success story that biopics are supposed to represent, although some traces of positivity remain. After clearing A.I.G.I.S, Doe supposedly kidnaps Hikari into this Labyrinth and the announcement for its airing begins. Unlike the past three movies, the announcement voice for this one quickly turns distorted, repeating the text written on Hikari's invitation letter. The party ventures here in an attempt to save Hikari. It was later revealed that Hikari was not kidnapped, but followed Doe to here at her own will in an attempt to face her past and recollect the memories of the very events that ruined her life, as she was previously amnesiac due to psychogenic amnesia. The Labyrinth is one of the biggest dungeons in the game, bearing a total of eight floors including the boss floor. Each floor is designated as an "Act" (akin to a stage play), with the final floor named "Endless Interlude". The first six floors of the labyrinth each feature stage lifts that are operated by stump-shaped levers, moving the party back and forth between each act to access unreachable locations. Raising and lowering the lifts also creates and removes blockages which can alter FOE paths or even introduce or remove them. The seventh floor is a single room which houses its last miniboss fight before the chapter boss is confronted on the eighth floor. Every two acts, the action is interrupted by a musical depicting a trauma that Hikari had experienced. These musical stages are constructs from her repressed memories, which were hidden due to her dissociative amnesia. In order for her to regain them, she must overcome their contents by denying her tormentors with her cognitive copies following the denial, angering them and they turn into Shadows that attack the party. Each of the first three musicals also relate to a previous movie, as they are formed from the past traumas that the musicals depict. Due to this, the characters inside them also repeat phrases that are used by the movie characters that they represent. Most of these musicals depict real events that Hikari experienced, although the last one depicting her breakdown is a false recollection distorted by her depression and grief. After each musical, a flashback is played that involves Hikari's relationship with her father, which appears to be a warm and caring father-daughter relationship, and much unlike her relations to other people around her. It was revealed that at the past Hikari was often emotionally abused due to being different from other people and was heavily traumatized as a result, which caused her to develop a depression that is so tremendous that she isolated herself from reality in her room and gave up the desire to live as her self under the premise that everyone hated her for being abnormal, becoming unresponsive towards any questions or attempts in conversation by her father. She also became incredibly agitated when others asked her "Why do you have to be like that," because all of her tormentors used that phrase when they dehumanized her, effectively making it her trigger phrase. When her father brought her a notebook as a gift, Hikari had withdrawn into her room. Out of concern for her well-being, Hikari's father inquired into her behaviour, but unwittingly invoked her trigger phrase "Why do you have to be like that?" With this one question, Hikari's trust in her father was shattered as she believed he had considered her a disappointment after his teachings made her hated by those around her. Presumably also in fear of her relatives having been successfully persuaded her father into agreeing with them, the perceived demeaning from her beloved provoked a flurry of traumatic flashbacks that caused to her fall into a life-consuming despair that completely broke her down and ruined her life. After the Order Gigant in the musical depicting Hikari's breakdown was defeated, it reveals itself as Doe in disguise. He then enters the depths without much interaction, only muttering Hikari's name. They follow him to the depths and encounter him, in which Hikari began to confess the reason of her avoidance from him and her self-destructive behavior, and he responds by expressing a wish to keep Hikari in the Cinema for eternity in an attempt to prevent her from getting any more harm. She denies this wish and he becomes berserk, transforming into a morbid abomination surrounded by film tapes. When the party destroys his eyes and body, his remains unleash a dangerous attack that triple-binds the entire party in a manner that cannot be protected against or recovered from. However, Hikari steps in, unveiling her Hikari's Cheer ability that can counter the effects of Infinite Despair, allowing the party to pull through and finish the fight. They successfully defeat Doe and he calms down after explaining the truth to Hikari and the party, and the flashbacks spread throughout the labyrinth are actually a part of a home video filmed by Hikari's Father, implying that the Hikari trapped was not her real person but a disembodied soul, with the real one presumably remaining in depression until it escapes the Cinema. Now having been fully overcame her personal fears along with her memory and sanity fully restored, Hikari steps in to hug him and he transforms into an image of her father, revealing himself as nothing other than a cognitive copy of him that is built by both Hikari's positive desire to become unique again and negative desire to end all of her pain in self-destruction. Hikari's heart has been successfully changed and she tearfully repents for her distorted despair and grief before Doe vanishes and transforms into the key required to escape the Cinema, then she also confesses to the party about her distorted thoughts and desires. She was able to make a full rehabilitation, reigniting her desire to live as a person. The credits roll with Nagi watching the movie alone, with the true name of the movie revealed as "Hikari" and "To Be Continued" shown afterwards, indicating that Hikari has found the will to continue living. The key appears as a golden musical note with a smiling flower on its handle, and is used to break the center and final lock on the Cinema. After clearing the movie, Nagi allows the party to escape the Cinema, only to reveal a twisted landscape and drop off her guise, with her true identity being the administrator of the collective unconsciousness Enlil. Enlil announces her twisted patronizing of humanity and her seemingly genuine but heavily deluded salvation plan to help them, and lets them escape the Cinema anyway. However, to save other people trapped in the Cinemas in her domain, the party and Hikari decides to confront her. Trivia * In a sense, this labyrinth is the closest to being a Midnight Channel episode or a Palace. * Hikari is similar to Futaba's Palace, as both are born from distorted desires of self destruction and grief, contain objects that embody their hosts's traumas and repressed memories which can be recovered by investigating and overcome its contents. The cognitive copies of their host's beloved parents whom they also developed delusions and guilt with appear at the end as bosses. ** It is also similar to the Abyss of Time, as it is a construct from its host's memories and has recollections of her past as flashbacks. * Hikari has distinctly more floors than any Labyrinth in the game, with eight floors while others have either four or five. However, no random encounters will appear in the bottom two floors. ** Act 7 is also a small passageway leading to the boss floor and it only contains a musical stage depicting Hikari's breakdown, indicating that she considers the incident as a terminal for herself. ** An interlude is a brief break in the action for a stage play or music composition. The final floor being named "Endless Interlude" implies Hikari's life being put on hold indefinitely with the loss of her will to live. ** The contents of the musical at the floor also refers to actual symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, where the affected will recollect traumatic events as being completely different from what they actually are and will have flashbacks of the traumatic events once triggered by a specific action, regardless of the intention of the trigger. It might also refer to biopics adding contents that are not a part of that person's history onto it. * The cognitive copies of Hikari can be seen telling the actual one to give up her personality at the trailer, but in the Labyrinth, they are assisting her. This can be seen as foreshadowing that the final blow that made her actually consider giving up her personality is made by nobody but herself. Category:Persona Q2 Locations